Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 4, 1 April 2013 — Shaping nutrition habits for overall well-being [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Shaping nutrition habits for overall well-being

During the past four months, Edward Santos has made a quiet but pronounced run at a healthy weight, shedding about 16 pounds in a scramble to maintain control of his diabetes. The 39-year-old kitchen man-

ager of the Big Country Bar & Grill in Waimānalo faced his share of problems losing weight. He's struggled with the urge to resist his favorite late-night snack: A jumbo burger, two tacos, onion rings and a milk shake - all from a Jack in the Box restaurant near his home. "I would be nicely content going to sleep," said Santos, a 1991 Kamehameha School graduate who in November started getting treated for his diabetes at Waimānalo Heahh Center. "Now, I know that I didn't have to eat like that." Santos is an example of the wider acceptance that the heahh center appears to be gaining from Native Hawaiian patients who are increasingly turning to it for care that ranges from prevention to treatment of chronic diseases. Of the 4,312 patients that the heahh center served last year, about 2,047 were Native Hawaiians. Meaning, nearly half of its patients are Native Hawaiians. Also, like Santos, most of them

are between ages 26 and 44. Increasingly, Waimānalo Heahh Center is caring for patients' primary medical and dental needs. While grant money from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs only accounts for 3.5 percent of the heahh center's annual operating budget, h is contributing to a new focus over the past three years to offer the highest level of coordinated care to patients by increasing their access to services and decreasing barriers, including serving everyone regardless of insurance. "There have been many successes, big and

small, of those who have chosen to participate in care coordination and other disease prevention efforts," said Mary Frances Oneha, chief executive officer of Waimānalo Heahh Center. "Care coordination services allow us to target efforts to the highest risk patients, helping ensure their access to services and helping to ■ overcome barriers to care - the overall goal, to ■ help improve the heahh of our community." This new approach has not gone unnoticed by patients like Santos, who needed help address- ■ ing unhealthy dieting that led to weight gain linked to his diabetes. ' Since November, his weight dropped to 25 1 ■ from267 pounds, largely due to nutritional help that not only led him to eliminate rice and sodas ' from his diet, but also to not eat after 8 p.m. | Santos' lifestyle change resulted from an

infected cut on his foot that prompted him in November to seek medical attention from ■ the Waimānalo Heahh Center. Going into his appointment, he expected doctors to bandage ' his cut and send him on his way. Instead, they ■ ordered him to take a blood test, whieh revealed he had diabetes. ' "I thought I would have gotten the bare | minimum from the Waimānalo Heahh Center," Santos said. "But they went above and beyond. 1 They really exceeded my expectations." ■ - J

Edward Santos, at his job at the Big Country Bar & Grill, turned to the Waimōnalo | Health Center when an infection developed in his foot. Like Santos, most of the Hawaiians the center serves are between 25 and 44 years old. I